Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago’s North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles, although she also traveled and photographed worldwide

via her wiki.. John Maloof, curator of some of Maier’s photographs, summarized the way the children she nannied would later describe her:

“She was a Socialist , a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. … She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn’t show anyone.”

How were you involved in Vivian getting her first posthumous gallery show here in L.A.?
I said, “I have a friend who has a really lovely gallery. Why don’t we do the L.A. [photos] and I’ll host it?” So we’ve been doing it ever since. We try to do one a year. We do some new pieces, and we try and get some of her prints — which are very rare — in there as well. The ones that she printed probably at the corner store.

What drew you to her eye?

A favorite photographer of mine on the documentary side would be Don McCullin. Stuff that I really admire in cinema would be Ken Loach. Within the photographs is sort of a critique of society. She has that. I thought it was extraordinary. You can see in her framing and in her point of view and in how the equipment that she was using changed.

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on Thursday, February 1st, 2018 at 9:52 am and is filed under ART, Documentary, Photography.
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